Hot Chocolate Date in Center

We went with friends to their favorite hot-chocolate place in Center ... but first we had to get there! So here we are braving the public tranby on our own. Taking pictures made it more of a game, and we didn't loose anyone in the process. Hurrah!

The said favorite hot-chocolate cafe was underground and styled to be "old Lviv" ... different, kind of dark, but fun.

Truth be told, there are a couple of things I prefer in Lviv, and the hot-chocolate is one of them - like melted chocolate bars ... you need a spoon to drink/eat it, and it is delicious!

After we loaded up on sugar, we tried to burn it off at the park - the park we frequented last summer most regularly and haven't really spent too much time at this go-around.

The favorite bounce castle ...

And pony rides in the park (another Ukrainian favorite of mine) ...

This is Anne explaining to me all the reasons she needs a "REAL" pony ... 

After listening to her passionate argument I concluded with, "maybe someday." 

She responded, "fine, then I'll just have to get a donkey until then!"

What's the best part of Daddy being gone?

Coming home! (and the gifts he brings:)).
Trying to keep eyes closed...
Loving the new baby ...
And all the great toys - especially the iphone inspired walki-talki...

 

And, of course "Rosie" the dinosaur with sharp teeth and claws ... "but don't worry, she doesn't eat you!" 

Week 14

Hi Family,

We love and miss you and hope you are doing well. We had great week - Benj was able to go to LA, and Mary, Ella, and and I stayed in Lviv. It was great to have Benj come home today - though I must confess, he kept saying, "it's great to see you all / be back with you all" instead of the usual Daddy comes home from a trip "it's great to be home" ... So while I know he missed us and is happy we're all together, I can't help but assume that means it would be better if we were all together in a more civilized environment.

 Benj had a great trip to LA, was able to see Adam and family, had a good meeting, and returned bearing gifts for all - including brown sugar and vanilla flavoring for me ... what a guy!  The winning gifts, of course (much to Benj's chagrin) were the little stuffed animals - a polar bear for Ella, dinosaur (with claws and sharp teeth) for Anne, and a lion for Mary. While he was away we managed to stay busy enough, without over-doing it ... we had a playdate at the Mayors house (he wasn't there of course, but his wife Katarina and I are becoming friends ... we got together 4 times this week!). Katarina is a really neat lady and I genuinely admire her charm, ability to mother and love 5 boys under the age of ten!, and her thoughtfulness - we also met at the park one morning and I was amazed that she knew everyone's names (adults and children) and they too all seemed to love her. She is certainly an asset to her husband and his political ambitions - some how he has won the hearts of the people of the West and still aligns himself with the ruling more "Russian-centric" national party - a well-played politician to be sure. Katarina is very impressed with Anne's dominant personality and has mentioned more than once that she thinks Anne will make a wonderful lawyer.  

Other outings ... 

We went to a village just outside of Lviv called "Winter Waters" where they have an animal sanctuary for deer, sheep and goats with another friend and her daughter. Anne loved the male-in-charge deer with horns, while Ella tried to feed the ones who were too shy to come to the fence by throwing the bread to them, and Mary was a bit unsure of the whole thing. I love the villages of Ukraine - they really are picturesque ... neat rows of garden vegetables, chickens roaming, real working wells in the yard, all centered around a church and cemetery. It's so simple, and peaceful. 

Friday was Ukraine's Independence day and we celebrated by joining a handful of church members for a branch party. The girls had a wonderful time dancing for hours to Ukrainian music ... and I couldn't help imagining that at least one of the three will end up on the BYU folk-dance team:)

Here are a couple stories about the girls from the week.

Mary - she wakes up each morning, and cuddles for about 30 seconds as she downs a bottle of juice ... then insists on having a "bow, bow!" in her hair, and while in the bathroom getting said hair-piece (that she insists on picking out) if she notices any of her fingernails are chipped ... we have to re-paint right away. After hair and nails, she demands "eggs, eggs!" and we go down stairs and she inhales a couple of egg whites ... and recently she's added "pancakes, pancakes" to the kitchen to-do list. After we mix the pancakes, we do the dinosaur floor puzzle and then play connect-four a couple of times. She gets the puzzles and games out herself (and puts them away), and it is more or less the order each morning. Ella and Anne usually wake up after connect-four and we cook off the pancakes and have breakfast together. So, while Benj was away, I thought I'd make our morning routine easier by mixing the pancake mix the night before, that way in the morning we just have to cook them off. Well, in the morning, following the "bow" and "paint" bathroom routine, we went down-stairs to the kitchen ... she pushed a chair over to the counter to mix the batter and I went to the fridge and showed her the finished product ... "Ta Da!" Mary was M-A-D, made - and broke down in tears that I had made the mix ahead of time. We remedied the situation by adding more milk, flower, and stirring ... but Mary made sure I knew that in the future, making pancake mix without her is not acceptable.

Anne - I posted this on Facebook too, so sorry if it's a repeat: We're at the park and Darling Anne (4) is giving orders to all the children in her English/ Ukrainian/ Russian/ made-up language and a lady comes up to me and says, "How did your daughter learn to speak the Georgian language so well?" I'm sure someone who actually is from Georgia would beg to differ. While Mary deals with the fact that we speak a different language at home than everyone else does outside the house by not talking ... Anne copes by over-talking, combining all the sounds and words she knows into sentences, and then saying them with such passion and conviction that everyone is convinced she's actually speaking a language someone, somewhere must understand! I guess she's living proof that at times it's not so much what is said, but how it's said that communicates meaning. Her art work is wonderful and I love to see the way she colors, paints and creates new things everyday.

Ella - is a great little helper. She sweeps and cleans without being asked. We've begun reading the first Anne of Green Gables aloud together. we're just over a hundred pages in, and I'm impressed with her ability (and interest) in reading a book without pictures. She loves the piano, and we really should get her lessons soon. We read about Samuel the Lamanite in Helaman this week and had the sister missionaries over for dinner and to act it out last night. They were thoroughly impressed (as was I) at how well she knew the facts and gospel principles about that great Book of Mormon prophet ... we also made President Monson's mother's three layer ribbon cake in honor of President Monson's 85th birthday this week ... we love the Friend online! 

Well, I think that's about all for our weekly update. We love and miss you and hope all is well.

xoxo,

Meagan+

Happy Ukrainian Independence Day

We celebrated with at the church with members from the Lviv Branch. Anyone who wanted was invited to step forward and sing a Ukrainian national song ... We all stood for the national anthem ... And then the dancing began. I think I see a potential BYU folk-dancer among us.

Deer Zoo

About 15 kilometers outside of Lviv in a village called "winter water" there is a deer and sheep habitat. We went through loaves of bread, and kilos of crab apples feeding all the animals. 

Of course, Anne's favorite "reindeer" was "Major" - the one in charge. 

Ella liked them all, especially the "nice girls and little babies." 

I am fairly certain Mary ate more bread than she fed to the animals, and was pretty apprehensive about the whole thing ... unless being held, of course. 

So while these three little ladies may look very similar (and indeed the coordinating clothes help), they each have distinct personalities. 

The sheep were a bit more aggressive than the deer - and devoured whole apples in a near single breath. 

We picked wild berries, and ate them until our bellies were full and our fingers stained. I love the villages of Ukraine, the sustainable gardens, green open space, and peaceful atmosphere. Someday perhaps we too will have farm animals, and a garden to tend ... but until then, we'll just enjoy the ones we have access to on a part-time basis, and try to make it home before naps. 

 

Week 13

August 21, 2012

Dear Family,

We hope you are doing and feeling well. We can't believe another week has come and gone ... 

Anne started keeping her own journal not too long ago. Ella began putting old receipts in a little book last month, and proudly announced she had begun her own "journey book." While Summer and Amira were here, Amira would save every ticket and paste it into her journal ... and Ella thought that was a good idea and began doing the same. Since then, Ella's "journey book" has become a really great keepsake. 
We put tickets, or dried flowers, or pictures of various activities we do, on the pages and then she writes what it is she experienced. First she dictates to me what she wants to write, I write it on a separate paper, and she copies it into her "journey book." I've found it's been a great way for her to practice her letters, learn spelling, and helped with her reading. 

Anne didn't previously express interest in doing a journal - and since she really doesn't write yet, I didn't push her ... until about a week ago. I asked Anne if she wanted to keep her own journal - or "journey book" - and she was thrilled at the notion. Like Ella's, we paste and glue things in, and then she dictates to me what to write in her book - only she calls it her "surgery book." So between the "journey" book and "surgery" book, there is a pretty great record of our most recent times and activities. Anne keeps hers next to her bed, and just before nap time she'll take it out and look at all the pages ... it's really very endearing.

Mary is great. She is very opinionated, and unfortunately still not very verbal (Ella and Anne were both talking in sentences at this point, and we are lucky to get words from Mary) ... but she will let you know if you picked out the wrong socks, clothes, or hair accessories for her - and not rest until she has the "right" one. She's very smart and understands everything - in English and Ukrainian, the trouble is we're not smart enough to understand her, I guess. The other thing about Mary is that she LOVES eggs ... she wakes up in the morning asking for "eggs, eggs?" (and to have her finger nails painted) - And on more than one occasion she's had 6 hard-boiled egg whites in a single "snack" sitting, and would eat more if we hadn't run out. There was a time when I though it would be really neat, someday when we have our own house, to have our own chickens and collect and use the eggs ... but at the rate we go through eggs (64 last week!) we'd need an army of hens to sustain us.

We went to the Lviv Children's Railway  park last Friday with a friend - that was fun. The train is still run by children, as it was during the Soviet era, and though not as exciting as KC Junior, or the McCormick Railway, it's always fun to "ride" different forms of transportation, and find new playgrounds to play at. We have another outing planned with the same mom and daughter  this week - the mother is very anxious for her daughter to learn English and we are anxious for a local to show us family friendly outings ... so I guess we're a good match for a weekly get together.

Bubbles keeps outdoing itself - each day is busier than the day before - and it's a constant organizational struggle to keep all the orders going. We had issues (again) this past week with the iron, which caused Benj to get even less sleep than usual. He had to contract out a lot of our work for the few days the iron was not maintaining it's temperature. Here's a case of US superior quality - we've never had any issues with our Dexter washers and dryers ... made in America with warranties, they are constantly running ... and going strong. Our iron is from France - the "local" distributor in Kiev is coming out today to look at it (5 days after it stopped working correctly, again) but they truthfully have no idea how to fix the iron either - and they don't even have the spare parts until they order them from France ... and the "English" translation of the manual is a total joke! It must have been translated from French to English by someone who's native language is Arabic because deriving meaning from it's pages is near impossible. Fortunately some American in South Carolina posted a bunch of information on our very iron online ... so we rely on his expertise more than anything. We've begun raising prices for the hostels and hotels we contract with, and so far no one has complained or taken their business elsewhere. Strange as it may seem, we sort of have a corner on the market - if only we could get the iron to perform consistently and the other iron here. We are now up to 19 full-time employees ... and while most small businesses with 19 employees we know may have some type of management hierarchy in place ... ours has 18 on the bottom and one floating (Igor) and Benj at the top. Benj is anxious to find capable management, but thus far the "capable" part doesn't seem easy to find. We've learned that everyone wants to "manage" or make money, but no one wants to work.  

Finally, we're all excited about another girl in the family. One friend recently wrote and said, "Benj is the only one she knows manly enough to live with five women," and I think that's a pretty accurate statement. We love and miss you all and hope you are great. Thank you for your love, encouragement and support on our behalf - it means so very much to each of us. 

Love, Meagan+

Children's Railway

When the Soviet Union dissolved, there were 52 "Children's Railway Stations" in operation - today we rode the one in Lviv. The USSR wanted to train the next generation how to run and operate the railways, and so began this project where children, under professional supervision, run railways for short distances. Pictured with us is the boy who checked our tickets. 

I've consoled myself that our little ones are getting a different kind of "education" - since we're missing out on all the back to school fun. I'm not sure why, but the who "Children's Railway" thing is quite fascinating in a near eerie sort of way. 

We also discovered a great park close by - It's always fun to find a new place to play, and this one is  possibly the best we've found yet in Lviv.

I know I'm biased, but this picture is why I love these girls so much.

They really are best friends - they play well together and help each other reach goals.